Thomas B. Woods

Pro/file Updates

The Newsletter For ZX Pro/file Users

Vol. 1, No. 3 July 1984

AF EER THE FALL..:.

Bill Jones of Panama City, FL sent an interesting note. He says, "UPDATES
has the potential of being a National Newsletter for Sinclair Computer In-
formation. Looking further down the road, UPDATES could be a vehicle to
start up a National Sinclair Computer Club."

Funny you should mention that, Bill. While UPDATES is definately not
ever going to be a "general interest" sort of rag, I do see the need for
some other publication to help fill the void left by SYNC cutting out.
Iam doing what I can to help out in this. Namely, I am publishing an-
other newsletter devoted to a broad range of ZX/TS interests.

This newsletter is called THE SYNCWARE NEWS, a bimonthly journal for
all Sinclair/Timex computer fanatics. Actually, SYNCWARE NEWS is not
new. It has been around for the past year. What is new is my involvement
in the publishing ‘aspects of the journal. I hope to contribute whatever tal-
ent I have toward improving the format of SYNCWARE NEWS, broadening
its scope, and boosting its circulation.

Since January we saw the Timex computer revolution take on all the char-
acteristics of a classic Greek tragedy. Overnight we watched our sources
of supplies and information dry up. It seems to me that the only people
who didn't desert the computer were the ZX/TS owners themselves, and
they (make that "we") were left standing saying, "Gee, what happened?"

Well I for one, firmly believe there is a whole lot more to be said about
our lowly computers. SYNCWARE NEWS has assembled a huge collection
of information about all ZX/TS machines which shall be published over the
coming months. The complete spectrum of topics are covered: hardware
projects, programming tips, product reviews, announcements, news, pro-
gram listings, and tutorials on programming theory. We have something
for every level of expertise--from rank amateur to cosmic.

To use the words of Bill Jones, SYNCWARE NEWS is "The Newsletter for
Sinclair Information". We will do our utmost to keep the ZX/TS flame alive.
But to insure success, we need subscribers. Now for the infamous bottom
line:

For. a one year subscription to SYNCWARE NEWS, send $16.95 (Visa/MC
welcome) to:

SYNCWARE NEWS, Subscription Office

P.O. Box 64

Jefferson, NH 03583

Tell your friends about SYNCWARE NEWS and ask them to subscribe too.
With a large active lively readership, SYNCWARE NEWS will insure that
our marvelous little machines will be around for quite some time to come.

PRO/FILE WORKS WITH
.COMPUSA DISK DRIVES TOO

Last issue there was an extended modif-
ication to run "ZX" with the AERCO disk
drives. This time, Steve Cottrell of Allen
Park, MI sends his modification to run the
program on the COMPUSA disk drive.

According to Cottrell, after the "ZX" tape
is loaded into the computer, break into the
listing and change line 25 so that it reads:

To put the program onto the disk initially,
GOTO 17 and type SAVE at the Main Menu.
Once it is saved, go back into the listing
and change3041 to 3046 to the following:

Tre

Cottrell adds: At line 3041 you will note a
SAVE statement that is the DOS of the
COMPUSA disk system. This statement de-
letes the existing program. The next line,
3042, re-saves the program that has new
data entered into it.

I included line 3044 to verify that a save
has indeed taken place. One thing I should
note is that the "DATA SAVED" stays on
the screen when the Main Menu comes up.
It goes away once PRO/FILE is entered
into.

ZX PRO/FILE SAILS THE SEVEN SEAG....

D.A. Dieman4+. HMC, USN writes, "I'm
using Pro/File +oard ship vith great suc-
cess keeping track of the dental status of
278 personnel."

AND SPEAKING OF WATER.....

Peter G. Govus reports that his West Pat-
erson, NJ home was flooded by 4 feet of
water not long ago. At the bottom of the
drink was his T/S1000. When the waters
subsided, Govus put the air blower to his
soggy machine. As soon as the thing was
dried out he powered it up, and just like
in the ads, the good old K-cursor popped
right up. Its reassuring to know that the
trusty TS can put up with such treatment
especially in light of the fact that new
ones are becoming scarcer than hens teeth.

NEW LIGHT ON THE MEMOTECH
MEMORY MYSTERY

In UPDATES No. 1 I noted that several
people experienced unusual behavior of
their computers when the Memotech 16K

ram pack was used to expand capacity
to 32K.

This snowball turned into an avalanche
as others added extra memory and other
interfaces--particularly when a TS1500
was used as the base computer.

Bill Russell of Winky Board fame sheds
some light on this common problem and
gives a possible cure. Russell says:

One often overlooked cause of crashes in
TS computers--especially when extra de-
vices are plugged in or. when a program

is being run that uses virtually all avail-
able memory (like Pro/File does) is in the
280 microprocessor itself. Timex computers
employ a Z80 chip that is of such marginal
quality that any extra load on its data or
address lines simply cannot be handled.

If you run Pro/File and it crashes frequent-
ly for no apparant reason, try replacing the
on board Z80 with one made by Intel or
Mostek. I tried this and it ended almost all
of my crashing problems; even many that

I thought were caused by ram pack wobble.

GLARING ERRORS Dept.

In "Upgrading to Larger Memories Without
Losing Data" (page 6, vol. 1, no. 1) step 7
of the instructions was incorrect.

Step 7 should read:

POKE 21342, PEEK 16434
POKE 21343, PEEK 16435
POKE 21344, 1

POKE 21345, PEEK 16434-3
POKE 21346, PEEK 16435

Now you should be able to upgrade to larger

memories without losing any sleep.

HOW TO CONNECT PRO/FILE
TO A 32K RAM PACK

To run a 32K version of "ZX", follow these
instructions. First set RAMTOP by poking:

1, POKE 16388,255 and ENTER
2. POKE 16389,191 and ENTER
3. NEW and ENTER

“~ Then LOAD the 16K version of "ZX". When
the Main Menu pops up break into the list-
ing by typing:

SHIFT 1, STOP, and ENTER

Press CLEAR and ENTER to remove the
existing variables. Then add these new pro-
gram lines:

After you double check for typos, press
RUN 4000 and ENTER. The result is a 32K
Pro/File that can store just under 20000
characters of data.

You may wonder why 32K can only hold
20000 bytes of data. If 16K can store 11000
characters, why can't 32K have 22000? The
answer is you might very well be able to
pack in a full 22000 bytes. However, a great
many 32K memory systems act funny on the
TS1000. To make matters worse, problems
do not crop up until after you've added a
substantial amount of data to the program.
This is true only when you run Pro/File to
the limit. If you hold back a few K of mem-
ory, these problems never appear. See the
report from Bill Russell also in this issue.

ADDITIONAL SELECTIONS FROM THE
DISPLAY OPTION MENU

Add these lines to Pro/File to eliminate
many tedious unnecessary key presses. They
incorporate into "ZX" much of the flexi-
bility found in the new Pro/File 2068 pro-
gram.

Working from the Display Option menu,
you'll be able to enter every command ob-
tainable from the Main ZX Menu. You could
therefore, enter a new search, change the
print format, add a new file, or make an
AUTOSEARCH from the Display Options
without the need to go back to the Main
Menu first.

Three major benefits stand out. First, you
can enter "A" to add a new file even when
an existing file is already on the TV screen.
It is possible, then, to duplicate files in
memory just by entering "A" from the Dis-
play Options then pressing "C" to close the
file. This saves time entering many files that
are similar.

Second, you can change print format (DEFP)
while you look at a file display. If DEFP
were set to 1-5-1 and you see from a file
display that line 7 needs printing, you can
change print format to include line 7, print |
the file, and reset DEFP to its original val-
ue without leaving the file display.

Third, you can enter a new search command.
Suppose you start a search for a file that
contains a reference to a different file. Be-
fore, you had to go back <:. the Main Menu
to enter the new search. Now, just enter
the new search from the Display Options.
No muss, no fuss.

Use techniques shown in previous UPDATES
issues to reduce capacity by 150 bytes.
Then add or alter the ZX Pro/File program
to incorporate these lines:

234 1F Yé="A" THEN GOTO Sao
245 GOTO 2ehetySCo"R"O-1108(¥S=
"U1 90a Ye="R"4308CLEN YE>1)

250 LET x#=Ys

255 GOTO 25

S00 IF B=i THEN CLS

2O1S RAND CC YS="DEFP" 3419

2092 PRINT AT 15,0;Ci1-2;"-" C23"
wes UF 13
20°35 LET Y=0

2100 GOTO S20e¢PEEK 14434=2)

GOTO !7 to start running again and try
out the enhancement. You'll notice that
the prompts and menus are not as nicely
layed out, but fancy menus extract their
toll on total data capacity.

Unless you're a new Pro/File owner, you
probably don't rely too heavily on prompts
and menus anyway. Easier entry of com-
mands more than offsets any inconvenience
caused by a menu's brevity.

SPEEDLOAD and "ZX"

If you own SPEEDLOAD, a fastloader put
out by Intercomputer, Inc., you'll be in-
terested in this modification made by Alfred
Revzin of Elmsford, NY. He writes:

The SPEEDLOAD cartridge works only with
the TS1500. A program that normally loads
and saves in 5 minutes will take only 20
seconds.

Load the Pro/File cassette in the usual way.
Modify line 25 so it reads:

ior Prat

To save Pro/File, enter the SAVE command
as called for in the Main Menu. Start the
recorder, press enter. The save starts im-
mediately. The screen pattern is different
as is the one for the load.

Once the program is speed saved, you can
speed load it by using the following com-
mand instead of the usual LOAD "ZX":

Pe ERIT BEF

THE IDIOT's IDIOT LINE
by Irving Helbling

Despite the safeguards built into ZX Pro/
File, I have managed to erase by mistake

two pages of data. Consequently, I devised
this Idiot's idiot line.

Y=2 AND Yé="" THEN GaTO

800 PRINT AT 1,0;"CONFIRM CELET
f OF ENTIRE FILE Y.-N"

1G INPUT ks

S20 PRINT AT 1,0:0%

630 IF kK#="¥" THEN GoTo
S40 GOTO 504

450

If you accidently press just ENTER when
the edit cursor has stopped on the top file
line, the above modification forces you to
respond with either a "Y" or "N" to con-
firm deletion of the entire file. Press "Y"
and its gone. Press "N" and you get another
chance.

EDITING THE ASTERISK

Larry Wilson of West Palm Beach, FL
writes:

When I initiate a search for "*", I find I am
unable to EDIT the first file called up. This
does not occur on subsequent files or if the
search is for another item. Is there some-
thing I am overlooking?

You have discovered one of ZX PRO/FILE's
idiosyncracies. If the first file you add to
the database is something like:

you can get the file on the screen using "*""
as a search command, BUT due to a quirk
in the program, you can't press display op-
tion "E" to EDIT it.

In order to change this file you must start
a new search for something else that will
print this file. Any other search command
will do: FILE 1, DATA A, DATA B, any-
thing except the "*" that brings up the
file could be used. Now when you press "E"
the cursor starts blinking as it should.

The blame for PRO/FILE's failure to edit
the first file when "*" is used as a search

_ command can be attributed to line 232 of

NY

the BASIC. This line is supposed to send
you off tc edit a file only if the SEARCH
IS COMPLETE file is not printed on the TV.

The way it stands, line 232 is a bit over-
zealous in the way it guards the SEARCnh IS
COMPLETE file. It also protects the aster-
isk marking the start of the next file, and
that is why you can't edit TEST FILE 1
when you use "*" to search with.

If you change 232 to:

=

PRO/FILE's edit rou’:*.e will work properly.

GEORGE ERICKSON'S ULTIMATE
LOADING SOLUTION: BATTERIES

UPDATES has devoted considerable space to
improving loading speed convenience and de-
pendability. Disk drives, stringy floppies, and
fast load-type programs all contribute greatly

\_ to these critical factors.

There is another solution to the loading prob-
lem which is often overlooked. That is, once
you have the program in your computer, never
take it out. Just leave the computer running
24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Impossible, you say? Well, George Erickson,

a manufacturer's representative for Canon
micro floppy drives, hard disks, and other
computer equipment, uses ZX PRO/FILE to
maintain his sales data. Since last November
his Timex has been running non-stop thanks
to a battery power system he developed. Even
when an April blizzard left Erickson's Ipswich,
MA community without power for over 24
hours, his files remained safe inside his com-
puter.

Erickson's bomb-proof power supply virtually
eliminates all crashes caused by power
line drop outs. It also eliminates about 90%
of all overheating problems. When this pow-
er supply system is combined with modifica-
tions to fix RAM wobble, it ends just about
every hardware related cause of computer
failure. It now becomes possible to load the
computer once and forget it.

The Erickson supply is comprised of 3 key el-
ements. First a 12 volt automobile battery re-
places the wall transformer that comes with
the computer. Connected to this battery is

the second element, a small trickle charger
which keeps the battery from discharging com-
pletely.

The 12 volts that come from the battery is,
by itself, too much for the computer to
handle so a voltage regulator circuit--the
third element--is added to reduce the 12
volts to just under 9 volts. This output
voltage is f-d into the Timex through its
normal power input jack. The net effect is
a super smooth double regulated power sup-
ply that is immune to even the worst pow-
er line glitches. It just won't quit even when
the lights go out for extended periods. Over
heating problems are practically wiped out
because voltage going into the computer is
lower than what the original transformer
supplies.

You can build your own Erickson battery
power supply using all new parts for about
$60. By raiding your junk pile and getting

a used battery, you could chop the price
down to as low as $15. You can buy the
regulator circuit ready made with case and
cables for $40. You must still supply the
batte:y and trickle charger. Order from Tom
Woods, P.O. Box 64, Jefferson, NH 03583.

The regulator circuit that follows was built
and tested by Pro/file UPDATES. It is based
on Erickson's design. Here's what you need:

1-12 volt car battery (get it with removable
vent holes so water can be added if needed)
1-12 volt trickle charger

2-Battery terminal studs with wing nuts

l-small utility cabinet

1-Roll 20 ga. 2 conductor cable

1-LM317 adjustable voltage regulator IC
(Radio Shack #276 1778)

1-Semi conductor heat sink (Radio Shack
#276 1363)

1-Fuse holder clip (#270 739)

1- 1.5 Amp fuse (#270 1274)

2-Miniature 1/8 inch Phone plugs (#274 287)

2-Miniature Jacks (#274 251)

1-4.7pf electrolytic capacitor (#272 1024)

1- .1 pf capacitor (#272 1069)

1-270 resistor

1-1.6k resistor

1-4 to 6 lug solder terminal strip

Construction Hints....

Follow the steps below. Use care when you
bend the leads of the LM317 chip to fit the
lugs of the terminal strip. They won't take
repeated bending without breaking.

When you choose the terminal strip, note
that one lug doubles as a mounting bracket
to the enclosure. Use this lug as a common
ground lug. DO NOT connect any pins of the
LM317 to this lug. It follows, then, that you
will need at least 3 lugs on one side or the
other of the ground lug. If you can't find the
exact strip you need, you can always use a
larger one and cut off the unused lugs with
nippers.

Avoid crossed wires and short circuits. Be
sure the polarity of all inputs and outputs is
correct before hooking up either the bat-
tery or computer.

STEP 1--Bend the two outside leads of the
LM317 regulator so they fan out wide enough
to fit in the lugs of the terminal strip.

STEP 2--Secure the chip to the strip by bend-
ing over the ends of each lead enough to hold
it in place. DON'T solder anything yet.

STEP 3--Secure the .lyf capacitor between
the ground lug and pin | of the regulator.
Bend the leads to hold it in place.

STEP 4--Connect the 270 resistor between
pins 2 and 3 of the regulator.

STEP 5--Hitch the 1.6KQ resistor between
lug 3 of the regulator and the ground lug.

STEP 6--Connect the 4.7pf electrolytic cap-
acitor between lug 2 and the ground. Be sure
the negative lead from the capacitor goes to
the ground lug.

STEP 7--Secure about 2 feet of 20ga. power
cord to pin | and the ground. These are the
leads which go to the battery. Mark the wire
connected to the ground. This lead MUST go
to the negative terminal of the battery.
DON'T MAKE ANY MISTAKES!

STEP 8--Set the regulator circuit aside and
connect the lugs of a mini-jack to the ends
of about 6 inches of power cord.

STEP 9--Connect the lead coming from what
will contact the tip of a plug when its insert-
ed into the jack to pin 2 of the regulator chip.
The end of the other conductor attach to one
end of the fuse holder clip. Hook the opposite
end of the fuse holder to the ground lug of
the terminal strip using a short piece of wire.

ai 2

STEP 10--Recheck your connections and sol-
der them. Take care that solder flows around
every lead completely.

STEP 11--Temporarily connect the battery

leads to the battery. Be sure the ground goes ~~

to the negative terminal. Test voltage at the
output jack with a volt meter. There should
be 83 to 9 volts between the lugs on the jack.

The lug representing the tip should be positive.

STEP 12--Remove the circuit from the bat-
tery and bolt the heat sink to the regulator.

STEP 13--Position the terminal strip in your
enclosure. Mark and drill holes for both the
output jack and a screw to fasten the Strip.
The heat sink must not touch the enclosure.

STEP 14--Attach the fuse holder to the base
with a gob of rubber cement. Mount the term-
inal strip and jack. Put a fuse in the holder.

STEP 15--Cut a small notch in the cover to
allow a pathway for the battery. leads. Then
put the cover in place.

STEP 16--Wire up the battery. Remember
that ground goes to negative. Test the out-
put voltage one last time. If it passes the
smoke test, you're ready to try it on the
computer.

STEP 17--Make a cable the length you need
using the 20ga. wire. Put a mini-plug on each
end. Be sure the tips of each plug are con-
nected to the same conductor.

STEP 18--Locate the battery in a safe well
ventilated place. Run the cable from the reg-
ulator to the computer power jack. Attach
the charger and regulator to the battery. Plug
the charger into a wall outlet.

You have just transcended the stress filled
world of power failures and line glitches. Your
computer is now battery powered.

Pro/file Updates is published 4 times a
year, in January, April, July, and October.

Subsciption rate is $9.95 annually.
Edited and Published by:
Thomas B. Woods

P.O. Box 64, Jefferson, NH 03583
(603) 586-7734

Copyright 1984 Thomas B. Woods

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